Beach art: 10 awe-inspiring designs

Forget sunbathing, surfing and sandcastles. Check out these talented artists who use the beach as a canvas for their designs...

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Beach art is one of the most beautiful art forms in the world. In recent years, more and more designers have turned to the huge canvas to display their work. The 2D images are totally natural, using no materials and leaving nothing changed, they live for the time of the tide. Here are 10 of the world's most talented beach artists. Which design is your favourite?

01. Jim Denevan

Jim Denevan works with natural materials to create beautiful, large scale patterns in the sand

Artist Jim Denevan creates breathtaking drawings on sand, earth and ice. He works with natural materials to create large scale drawings in different locations.

In March of 2010, Jim Denevan and his crew were commissioned to create large scale artwork on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, Siberia. The spiral of circles grow from an origin of 18" to a whopping several miles in diameter.

02. Jamie Wardley

What better Mother's Day present than a huge sand illustration?

Jamie Wardley is the sand artist behind this brilliant Mother's Day illustration on Blackpool beach. The 32-year-old is the founder of Sand in your Eye, a team of artists who create pieces like this all over the north of England and Scotland.

Wardley has his art perfectly timed, having approximately six hours in which to create his stunning illustrations before the tide comes in.

03. Tony Plant

UK artist Tony Plant spends his time transforming the beautiful beaches of Cornwall into gigantic canvases for his artwork. Using nothing more than a garden rake and stick, Plant carves his art in the flat, wet sand below the tidal zones for greater contrast.

With limited time, the talented artist quickly illustrates intricate, geometric patterns into the sand, which last for a few hours before the sea reclaims the beach.

04. Andres Amador

American artist Andrew Amador has been using the beach as his canvas for the last 12 years, originally inspired by the crop circles phenomenon in the UK.

The designer creates his work in a sketchbook before figuring out how best to develop his designs in the sand. Amador then uses Google Earth to pick the best beaches on which to carve his giant doodles, using nothing but a garden rake.

05. Sand in your eye

The Sand in your Eye team has created numerous stunning sand drawings, including this gorgeous portrait

This giant beach beauty was created by the Sand in your Eye team, based in the UK. Founded by artist Jamie Wardley, they have created numerous breathtaking designs in the sand, their biggest so far being 800 meters long.

Wardley comments on the company website, "The ultimate success of the drawing is on how well the team works together under the pressure of the incoming tide."

06. Sam Dougados

Sam Dougados has the most awesome workshop - the beach! This talented artist started out with poetry, modelling and sculpture before turning his skills to land and beach art. Dougados is now well known in the beach art community for his huge geometric designs.

His inspiration coming from many different sources, he comment on his website, "Influences come from pop art, contemporary art, street art and Mother Nature herself."

07. Andy Coutanche

Artist Andy Coutanche's designs have attracted the attention of various medis groups, including the BBC. Image Andy Coutanche

Artist Andy Coutanche is also appropriately known as the Jersey Sandman. A few years ago, he began creating sand drawings on the beaches of New Zealand, France, Jersey and it's surrounding reefs with this great grandfathers rake. Coutanche comments on his (awesome) website, "My inspiration came from pictures of crop circles and a certain classic Led Zeppelin box set cover!"

Starting out with fairly small designs, his artwork grew rapidly and has since attracted the attention of various media groups, inclduing The Telepgraph newspaper and the BBC.

08. Everton Wright

Visual artist Everton Wright uses various beaches as a canvas for his 'Walking Drawings'. Using a combination of freehand and mechanical tools, he creates designs of at least a quarter of a mile long in the early hours of the morning. People of all ages, genders and cultures, all dressed in black, are then invited to walk its lines in various formats and patterns.

"I wanted to take my studio practice into a public space and onto a larger canvas. Walking Drawings experiments with a new way of drawing, swapping traditional media such as paint, charcoal and paper with landscapes, digital video pixels and people," he says.

09. Gunilla Klingberg

Using a different technique to the other artists featured, Swedish designer Gunilla Klingberg created this A Sign in Space graphic star pattern using truck tyres at low tide.

And this design wasn't washed away just once. Following the lunar and tidal calendar, the pattern was remade again and again at all possible days at low tide during the months of July and September last year.

10. Peter Donnelly

Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, artist Peter Donnelly has been practising the art of sand drawings for over a decade now. In that time, he's created over 1000 pieces of artwork, all of which have been washed away shortly after they were expertly designed.

Using a rake and stick for paintbrushes, Donnelly creates his stunning illustrations when the tide goes out. And roughly four hours later, the beach is covered in some seriously special artwork.